The GOP has one thing right..state run government works better than federally administered programs . Where they went wrong with Obamacare was not letting their states run it.

The GOP has one thing right..state run government works better than federally administered programs .  Where they went wrong with Obamacare was not letting their states run it.  While Obamacare has not even begun its full implementation, the GOP is first to cackle it is dead already. Hardly. The heart of Obamacare is beating right where it was supposed to, in  state run exchanges. That success was in spite of  the GOP that mightily strived to kill it off .

While Obamacare permitted and funded states to  set up their own marketplace exchanges, or to develop their own web sign up systems, 36 mostly  Republican dominated state houses chose to  leave  implementation  up to the federal government and they  dumped their citizens into its flawed internet system.  Fifteen mostly Democratic dominated states created and now  run  their own marketplaces.

Twenty six  states, mostly GOP controlled, also   refused to  take free money from the federal government to expand Medicaid . Eight GOP governors did expand Medicaid or found alternatives,  and others are considering it because they saw advantages to their own state budgets.

 There is  fall out  from those not expanding Medicaid.  Eight million (of which 1.4 to 1.7 million are in Texas) of the 14 million  near poor uninsured in the US  who earn  too much for traditional Medicaid and too little to participate in the marketplace exchanges fall into the gap and  must continue to seek charity  care in hospitals, shifting   health care costs to state government budgets and to the insured who will pay higher premiums.

  Obamacare allows states to provide their own alternative to Medicaid.  Arkansas used the federal money to develop their own plan to serve the near poor and others are considering it  ,but Texas, with the highest rate of uninsured, has not offered any solution whatsoever. They refused  set up their own exchanges, failed to expand Medicaid,  closed their high risk pool, and sent insurance applicants to the federal site.  The loudest voices  in favor of these denial policies are their governor and their Teaparty Senator Ted Cruz  while their constituents  most in need of the program have become their collateral damage.
Fourteen states have enacted "navigator suppression laws", restricting the ability of trained helpers to assist signups. The state of Missouri is being sued over such action. Oklahoma banned them and Florida does not let navigators in certain social services agencies.
 State exchanges with one or two exceptions showed the rest of the US how Obamacare was supposed to function…state managed and state run. .   About  three-quarters of all October ObamaCare enrollees signed up via state exchanges and numbers are snow balling, often surpassing predictions.

 The Los Angeles  Times,11/18/2013  reported  California already hit enrollment targets for 2014 because they  had enrolled about 31,000 people in health plans last month and nearly doubled that in the first two weeks of November. Connecticut and Kentucky exceeded their enrollment estimates. In Minnesota, enrollment in the second half of October ran at triple the rate of the first half. Washington state is also on track to  exceed its October  figures.   Officials at ConnectforhealthColorado (www.connectforhealthco.com)  reported during the month of October, more than 37,000 Coloradans have signed up or been approved for health coverage that takes effect January 1, 2014.